In today’s environment, companies in Berkeley, California count on reliable Internet access as the lifeblood of their business. Fast and reliable access to The Internet is needed for companies to function properly; large corporations and small companies alike.

access to The web will become increasingly important to us in the coming months and years. Our dependence on access to The web will only grow as time goes on.

Our uses of the internet reach far and wide. From data sharing, video calls, and shopping to VOIP and email, the internet has a broad presence. What do you need? Can a cable modem suffice? Maybe you need Metro Ethernet. Your needs may be met with Gigabit Internet. A 5 Meg Internet circuit, 10 Meg Internet access, a 50 Meg circuit, or a 100 Meg access to The web point: what is right for your business in Berkeley, California?

How to Define your Business Need for Internet Access

Before selecting the appropriate service, your organization must assess its needs. Is the web primarily used for emailing or web surfing? Is real time data connection with cloud servers essential to your organization? Do remote sites depend on you hosting the data in Berkeley, California?

How would an outage to your high-speed Internet affect your organization? How much downtime can your business withstand? Is uptime required? You must answer questions like these so you can make a purchase that actually meets your needs

In the broadest of terms, companies need high-speed Internet access. Before you choose your broadband internet, look at the costs and benefits. Performing this analysis is an important step in picking the right one for your business. Many service providers toss out terms such as:

Internet access at high-speeds

Provider of Internet for Businesses

broadband cable modems

Metropolitan-area Ethernet

Gigabit Ethernet services or Gigabit Internet

Multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)

Providers of point-to-point circuits

5-megabyte access circuits

Internet access circuits-10 Meg

High-speed 50-megabyte access to The web circuits

Internet access circuits- One hundred megabytes

Leading SIP trunk authority

Direct or dedicated Internet access

… and much more

… be sure not to forget what capability and technical solutions meet your business’s specific needs.

Surfing the Web at Work: Organization Internet Access

Most companies in Berkeley, California require that some or all of their workers have access to the web. Whether it is to speak with shippers, do research or place orders, access to The Internet is required.

The number of workers you have may be the factor that drives your decision. If you have a smaller workforce, you may do fine with a smaller Internet circuit. For example, if you only employ a handful of people, a 5 or 10 Meg circuit may meet your needs. If you have 50 employees who are using the internet simultaneously, you may need more.

Your workforce may simply use an intranet system with limited video and graphics. If this is true, your need for high speed Internet be less than you thought. On the other hand, if your company requires that its employees download many documents or images and videos, Internet speed becomes more important.

Does your company regularly conduct backups? It is recommended that you do remote backups from every desk. If you are, you will need to support simultaneous connections out to the web to synchronize the backup data to collect.

Does your company require employees to share files using a service like Google drive or DropBox? When people save a file, it gets pushed to the cloud. The file is then synched with other people’s computers. You need to have sufficient bandwidth to support this function while also supporting every other service.

Depending on your location, high-speed business access to The net, including Metro Ethernet and gigabit Internet may be viable options. These are typically found in “lit buildings” in Berkeley, California. Carriers have already wired these buildings. Adding this high-speed Internet to your office may be surprisingly affordable and easy.

Unless you are bringing Metro Ethernet into a new building, it does not have to be an expensive proposition to connect it to a suite within a building. Metro Ethernet or gigabit Internet may provide you with high-speed access to The net in thirty days or less, depending on availability.

Maximize Internet-based Applications With High-Speed Internet Access

Consider whether your business hosts its own servers that run APIs, websites and/or data to outside buildings, offices or companies. Are your corporate headquarters with a hosted application utilized by 50 branch offices? Does your office host the point of sale (POS) system for every single store in a large retail chain? Are you a legal practice hosting the data for three locations?

When data and programs are hosted centrally at one main site, people outside that location must gain access. Those people are not able to do their work if the net connection fails or is unreliable. If you need multiple connections to function at the same time from many different places, make sure that your intranet solution can reliably support it.

The needs of an office with one employee web surfing may not need more than a cable modem or an inexpensive 5-10 megabyte circuit. For headquarters, Metro Ethernet, gigabit Ethernet or other high-speed Internet dedicated circuits is advisable. High speed is important but they also must be able to support multiple distinct connections. A cable modem would not be able to accomplish this.

Bringing in a cable modem, which seems to save money, may actually come at a price. Your low monthly bill may mean that the bandwidth is shared among multiple tenants. If you subscribe to a cable modem with a 30-megabyte connection, you would expect to always be able to reach that high speed. However, it is possible that during peak hours, you won’t. Many cable companies only deliver a set amount of bandwidth within a community. That bandwidth branches off to different buildings and then to various tenants within those buildings. With a 30-megabyte connection, you may not get to that speed during the working day. Is this a problem for you if you expect 30 and get 6?

Some providers offer customers dedicated and guaranteed bandwidth. With these options, bandwidth is yours. It is not shared with anyone outside of your business. The full capacity of your circuit should be attainable during all hours regardless of neighboring buildings, people or offices.

As an example, look at Metro Ethernet. They provide guaranteed bandwidth in various increments. You can receive guaranteed bandwidth in increments of 100, 50, 10 and 5 megabytes. Want to reach gigabit speeds? You can by using a gigabit Internet provider.

Here, providers deliver enough high-speed to the building, so that it can be split among various tenants. The carrier has the right amount so that everyone gets the contracted speed that has been promised.

Incorporating Redundancy Into Your High Speed Business Internet Circuits in Berkeley

You can’t control everything. Even with the superior Internet bandwidth products that some carriers offer in Berkeley, California, problems arise and circuits can fail. How can you decrease the chance of an outage?

Try using redundant circuits.

Redundancy in this situation comes in two forms.

The first is where you get multiple circuits from one carrier. In this situation, the redundancy helps protect you from port issues or physical line issues. Damage to an external wire or part can cause the failure of all of your circuits. A regional outage experienced by your carrier can have the same result. This offers some protection and assurance but does not eliminate all threats.

The second way to set up circuit redundancy is by using two different carriers to bring in your circuits. For users and the public, you can make it look like you have one cohesive circuit. You can also make the connections act as a single circuit. You can do this with various advanced routers and IP address allocations. But, you know that they are actually separate and redundant. Diversity redundancy provides greater assurance, comfort and protection. Should one carrier have some trouble that extends to a greater area and is out of your control, you are backed up with a different carrier.

For maximum redundancy, you should look for redundant circuits from different providers with different physical geographic pathways in Berkeley. If at all possible, you want to obtain circuits entering the premises on different sides. Whether they are attached underground or to a telephone pole, your goal should be to have the circuits in different directions leading to different central locations. What if there is some kind of catastrophic incident such as a fire or accident that impacts circuits within a region? Now, you have redundancy in an alternative physical direction.

What Will Not Having Enough Protection for Your Business Class High Speed Internet Cost You?

Although access to The Internet comes at a price, the price of unreliable Internet access is tremendous. Contemplate these scenarios:

Your business telephone utilizes voice-over Internet Protocol, or VoIP as it is commonly known

If your business utilizes a cable modem, consider whether your carrier is providing circuits for multiple other tenants within the building. During the course of a regular work day, any or all of these other businesses might be performing massive file downloads. Tenants might be taking a large volume of calls or be regularly streaming video. What will happen to your telephone calls as the amount of usable bandwidth decreases? How will the caliber of the call be affected? Will calls be cut-off? Will you sound muffled or choppy to your customers?

Multiple sites use your organization as the central data point

Your office is the hub of your enterprise: You might be a law practice that shares files, a retail operation that utilizes POS systems or a large accounting firm that needs to share databases. All of your sites, you may have 2, you may have 500, you may have 4, 000, count on your main Internet connection to access and receive data. What happens if your circuit goes down? Would it annoy you or destroy you? Is work even possible at your other locations? Take new orders? Service existing ones? Share essential data? Make sure you completely understand your needs before you pick a solution. Perhaps you are a software company, running a hosted solution used by hundreds of customers. Maybe you offer a service that allows other systems use an application program interface (API) to communicate with you to collect information and data. It is possible they will not be able to connect to your servers. Customers do not enjoy repeated outages. How long with they put up with them before looking to take their business elsewhere?

The phones in your office, which functions as a call center, relies entirely on voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP)

Does your company completely rely on the web? If your circuits go down, you cannot make calls. Your reps have no way of answering calls, if they even know they are coming in. You are now, essentially, out of business. While most reputable call centers are already aware and using redundancy, is it enough? Are your carriers sufficiently reliable? You should be getting high quality service that ensures your calls are consistently clear and reliable.

Picking the Right High-Speed Company Access Circuits for Your Berkeley, California Company

You have several different options to pick from. Your organization needs and budgets will drive your decisions. To recap:

Internet Access Needs for Small Company

If your organization is small, with one location or office, you are likely not concerned about redundancy. For you, a single 5, 10 or 50 megabyte Internet access circuit may suffice. Find out if you are in a lit building. If so, the price of Metro Ethernet or gigabit service may be affordable. The availability of circuits and your location determine prices; speak with one of our engineers to learn what your best options are.

Single Location Mid-Sized Organization and Internet Access

You have a midsized company in Berkeley; you will surely need higher-speed Internet. Your options are Metro Ethernet, gigabit Internet and higher speed circuits. In a perfect scenario, multiple circuits from different providers will give you the most redundancy. You may be able to achieve this in a manner that will not break the bank. Two smaller circuits may be cheaper than one. For instance, you may use two 50 meg circuits instead of a single 100 meg circuit. To repeat, availability and prices vary. Call one of our experts to learn what is available in your specific area.

Access to the web for the Mid-Sized Organization with Several Offices

The greatest risk of failure belongs to companies that have multiple places of organization or offices. Redundancy is crucial. Multiple providers or providers are recommended. Also, redundant equipment such as switches and routers in your facility can minimize the risk of downtime. Here too, take a careful look and choose the right Ethernet access services, Metro Ethernet providers, gigabit Internet providers and other high-speed access to The net circuit providers. Your organization can benefit from finding the right mix of services and carriers.

What about enterprise clients and large corporate clients? What about clients who provide services that rely on the web for delivery of said services?

For companies falling in this category, gigabit Internet circuits, Metro Ethernet Internet circuits and point-to-point high-speed Internet circuits are essential. You will want to have the greatest protection of your uptime. To accomplish this you must have redundancy: redundant circuits from multiple providers and redundant hardware for your system. You need to provide sufficient bandwidth to handle usage spikes without slowdowns or interruptions. It is crucial that not only your circuits have the ability to support a vast number of multiple and simultaneous connects, but your hardware must have the ability to support them as well.

You May Receive an Internet Need and Internet Demand Analysis for Free

There is great risk of failing circuits or insufficient bandwidth. You need to have the right circuit or circuits to meet your demands while staying within your budget. Choosing the right mix of circuits and hardware is a daunting task.

We have engineers that will analyze your needs, look at your organization requirements and develop an action plan for you… for free!We are going to examine your current usage and demand levels then create a design that provides you with the resources you need to keep your business running smoothly at a reasonable cost.

Please click here to complete the contact form on the right side of this page or call our office to schedule an appointment for an assessment. It can take less than 48 hours to complete your assessment.